Marilena Athineos is a 16-year-old junior at Xaverian Excessive Faculty in Bay Ridge, Brooklyn
Courtesy photograph
I used to be strolling residence from faculty in Brooklyn on a Friday in October once I was struck by a Jeep that jumped the sidewalk and pinned me towards a brick wall. It was solely via a mixture of luck, the fast motion of the great Samaritan who utilized a tourniquet to my leg and the miracles of contemporary drugs, that I survived. Nonetheless, this crash sentenced me to a lifetime of medical therapy. As an alternative of worrying about weekend plans with my pals, I spend my time at medical doctors’ appointments and barred from regular teenage experiences.
Since then, I’ve discovered that the Jeep had been attempting to move one other car when it was struck, inflicting it to lose management, leap onto the sidewalk and hit me. Despite the fact that the motive force of the Jeep was underinsured, New York’s present legislation permits my household to hunt a restoration from the opposite car’s insurance coverage firm, past the coverage limits of the Jeep’s insurance coverage, via an insurance coverage legislation known as joint and several other legal responsibility protection.
If Gov. Kathy Hochul’s proposed revisions to auto insurance coverage legal guidelines move, then I might be left struggling to cowl the lifelong medical care my accidents require. The governor claims her proposals are an vital a part of her affordability agenda to decrease the price of residing for New Yorkers.
The query New Yorkers ought to be asking is: reasonably priced for whom?
Eliminating joint and several other legal responsibility provisions might save insurance coverage firms cash, however they’re a monetary demise sentence for the victims of the site visitors violence that plagues New York streets day-after-day.
A collection of different provisions within the Hochul’s proposal would equally punish victims, whereas permitting insurance coverage firms to keep away from paying their justifiable share for accidents victims did nothing to trigger.
One among these proposals would eradicate protections for victims who can’t work as a result of their accidents by altering the definition of what a critical harm is. Proper now, if a crash retains you out of labor for 90 days out of 180 days, that’s a critical harm. Hochul’s plan wipes that out. That shifts the price of accidents away from negligent drivers and their insurers and dumps it on households like mine, Medicaid and taxpayers.
One other proposal shifts blame onto victims by creating a brand new class known as “modified comparative negligence,” which inspires insurance coverage firms to litigate, delay and nickel-and-dime victims, as a method to stroll away from accountability. The present system of pure comparative negligence is far more environment friendly — everybody pays their justifiable share, instances settle, and court docket dockets get cleared.
The governor retains repeating what insurance coverage firms are saying, that staged automotive crashes and fraud are the explanation premiums are going up.
However the information inform a special story. Insurance coverage firms are making more cash than ever. A research launched final month by the Middle for Justice & Democracy (CJD) exhibits that New York’s largest auto insurers are making report income, even whereas premiums enhance.
And with regards to staged crashes — that’s already unlawful. Implement these legal guidelines. Don’t use them as an excuse to take rights away from individuals.
Through the COVID pandemic, site visitors crashes in New York went down by greater than 12%. However insurance coverage premiums nonetheless went up. By 2023 they had been greater than 25% larger than earlier than the pandemic.
So if crashes went down and premiums nonetheless went up, how can injured victims be the issue?
That’s why so many avenue security teams are talking out. As a result of this plan doesn’t defend individuals like me. It protects insurance coverage firms.
Marilena Athineos is a 16-year-old junior at Xaverian Excessive Faculty in Bay Ridge, Brooklyn
